China landslide kills 20 leaving 12 missing

Heavy rain unleashed a landslide on Friday, killing at least 20 people and leaving 12 people to be missing.

The landslide buried 29 people in Pianpo village in the southwestern province of Guizhou. Nine were pulled from the debris, eight of who were hospitalised whilst one later died.

Footage showed toppled trees and crushed cement buildings.

Southern China is prone to flooding during the summer monsoon season. However, rainfall has been particularly heavy this year with many areas suffering from torrential rains over the last week.

On Thursday, an orange alert for storms across south and east China had been issued by China’s national observatory, which is the second highest warning in the four-tired system. The observatory warned people to take precautions against the potential flash floods and landslides.

20,000 people in those regions were displaced by the threat of floods and landslides due to relentless rain. More than 3,600 homes have collapsed, totalling a direct economic losses of 3.14 billion yuan (US$470 million).

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Cohan has written for online publications including the Huffington Post, Gigwise, Time Out Singapore, The Metropolist, Zoo, We Plug Good Music and Redstar Qingdao. He has developed an insight into the East Asian community in the UK from his work at the British Chinese Project, an NGO that promotes political participation for the Chinese in the UK.